Isaiah 2
The Lord’s Future Reign
1This is a vision that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:
2In the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s house
will be the highest of all—
the most important place on earth.
It will be raised above the other hills,
and people from all over the world will stream there to worship.
3People from many nations will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of Jacob’s God.
There he will teach us his ways,
and we will walk in his paths.”
For the Lord’s teaching will go out from Zion;
his word will go out from Jerusalem.
4The Lord will mediate between nations
and will settle international disputes.
They will hammer their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will no longer fight against nation,
nor train for war anymore.
A Warning of Judgment
5Come, descendants of Jacob,
let us walk in the light of the Lord!
6For the Lord has rejected his people,
the descendants of Jacob,
because they have filled their land with practices from the East
and with sorcerers, as the Philistines do.
They have made alliances with pagans.
7Israel is full of silver and gold;
there is no end to its treasures.
Their land is full of warhorses;
there is no end to its chariots.
8Their land is full of idols;
the people worship things they have made
with their own hands.
9So now they will be humbled,
and all will be brought low—
do not forgive them.
10Crawl into caves in the rocks.
Hide in the dust
from the terror of the Lord
and the glory of his majesty.
11Human pride will be brought down,
and human arrogance will be humbled.
Only the Lord will be exalted
on that day of judgment.
12For the Lord of Heaven’s Armies
has a day of reckoning.
He will punish the proud and mighty
and bring down everything that is exalted.
13He will cut down the tall cedars of Lebanon
and all the mighty oaks of Bashan.
14He will level all the high mountains
and all the lofty hills.
15He will break down every high tower
and every fortified wall.
16He will destroy all the great trading ships
and every magnificent vessel.
17Human pride will be humbled,
and human arrogance will be brought down.
Only the Lord will be exalted
on that day of judgment.
18Idols will completely disappear.
19When the Lord rises to shake the earth,
his enemies will crawl into holes in the ground.
They will hide in caves in the rocks
from the terror of the Lord
and the glory of his majesty.
20On that day of judgment they will abandon the gold and silver idols
they made for themselves to worship.
They will leave their gods to the rodents and bats,
21while they crawl away into caverns
and hide among the jagged rocks in the cliffs.
They will try to escape the terror of the Lord
and the glory of his majesty
as he rises to shake the earth.
22Don’t put your trust in mere humans.
They are as frail as breath.
What good are they?